Ghanim documents and analyzes the complementary roles of both sexes in sustaining the system of violence and oppressive control that regulates gender relations in Middle Eastern societies. He reveals that women are not only victims of violence but welcome the opportunity to become perpetrators of violence in the married female life cycle of subordination followed by domination. The mother-in-law plays a crucial role in supporting the structure of patriarchal control by stoking tensions with her daughter-in-law and provoking her son to commit sanctioned violence on his wife. The author applies his deep analysis of gender and violence in the Middle East to illuminate the motivational profiles of male and female political suicidalists from the Middle East and the martyrological adulation that they are accorded in Middle Eastern societies.
David Ghanim is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Middle Eastern Studies, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He taught at the Universite du Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria, and conducted research at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A native of Iraq, he holds his doctorate from the Corvinus University of Budapest.